After the people on the plain of Shinar started building a great tower, God stopped their progress. This devotional reading looks at how God confused their language to stop the completion of the Tower of Babel.
Nuggets
- It is interesting that Moses wrote that God came down.
- God didn’t want humans who did not believe in Him to grow unchecked.
- God confused the languages so that people had to congregate together and move apart.
- God may have separated humans, but He did not plan to leave us that way.
In the last devotion, we started talking about the construction of the Tower of Babel. It was built in the area that Nimrod, one of the grandsons of Ham, populated.
As I wrote the last devotion, I wrote it believing Nimrod had a hand in building it. That may or may not be the case. His name is not mentioned in Genesis 11.
Nimrod is described to be almost larger than life. He is described as an oppressor. For that reason, I can see him leading the charge to build something to turn the people away from God.
God, though, had other ideas.
Let's Put It into Context
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Devotions in the Creation’s Do-Over series
God Came Down
“But the Lord came down to look at the city and the tower the people were building” (Gen. 11: 5 NLT)
It is interesting that Moses wrote that God came down.
God knows and sees all that we do. He sees the good and the bad.
So, God saw Nimrod and his crew doing bad. He let it go on until it was His time to shut it down.
Let’s see what it says in the Hebrew. “And Hashem [God] came down to see the Ir [city] and the Migdal [tower], which Bnei HaAdam [the Adams or humans] built” (Gen. 11: 5 OJB).
Yeah, it says came down, too.
No, we don’t know what form He took. We have to assume that it was different than Him looking down.
Parker helped us understand. He wrote, “Almighty God Himself came down to see what the children of men were doing, and when He comes down (a phrase which is used to accommodate Himself to our methods of expression).”
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God coming down is just a way for us to say it in human-speak so we can understand.
We know that God has come down from Heaven other times. We know He will in the end.
- “After his baptism, as Jesus came up out of the water, the heavens were opened and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and settling on him” (Mt. 3: 16 NLT).
- “For I [Jesus] have come down from heaven to do the will of God who sent me, not to do my own will” (Jn. 6: 38 NLT).
- “For the Lord himself will come down from heaven with a commanding shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trumpet call of God. First, the believers who have died will rise from their graves” (I Thess. 4: 16 NLT).
- “And I saw the holy city, the new Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven like a bride beautifully dressed for her husband” (Rev. 21: 2 NLT).
I like what Hughes said. He wrote, “God is below when men think He hath forsaken the earth, and is near to visit the wickedness of man.”
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God is near us when we think He has left us. He is near even when we sin.
We turn away from God. Then He turns away from us.
“So God abandoned them to do whatever shameful things their hearts desired. As a result, they did vile and degrading things with each other’s bodies. They traded the truth about God for a lie. So they worshiped and served the things God created instead of the Creator himself, who is worthy of eternal praise! Amen. That is why God abandoned them to their shameful desires. Even the women turned against the natural way to have sex and instead indulged in sex with each other” (Rom. 1: 24-26 NLT).
In other words, we bring it on ourselves.
Nothing Will be Impossible
“‘Look!’ he said. ‘The people are united, and they all speak the same language. After this, nothing they set out to do will be impossible for them!’” (Gen. 11: 6 NLT)
God didn’t want humans who did not believe in Him to grow unchecked.
We know nothing is impossible for God. It is interesting that He is not the subject of verse 6.
Humans are. “‘Look!’ he said. ‘The people are united, and they all speak the same language. After this, nothing they set out to do will be impossible for them!’” (Gen. 11: 6 NLT).
No, we are not equal to God. But remember, we are made in His image.
What does that mean?
- All mankind have a spirit that we get when we are given breath.
- We all have an intelligence – we are curious and have abilities to reason.
- We all have the free will to make choices for ourselves.
- We all have moral character.
- We all have consciences.
- God has given us authority over animals but not over the earth.
- All of mankind is going to live for eternity.
- Mankind is creative, even though some may discount or diminish their talent.
- Mankind are creatures who feel, especially love.
God is Sovereign God. We are not gods.
There are differences between worldview people and disciples.
- Disciples also have the Holy Spirit that lives within us.
- Our godliness accelerates our intelligence.
- Worldview people may be good people, but disciples will one day be perfected.
- Disciples have the Holy Spirit to guide us and remind us what is holy and righteous.
- God has given us authority over animals but not over the earth.
- Worldview people who are spiritually dead will live in hell; disciples who are spiritually alive will live in heaven.
- The worldview definition of love is not as pure as God’s definition of love.
God made us to have abilities. He didn’t want to limit them. He wanted us to be the best for Him.
But He didn’t want a Satan Junior. Satan wanted to depose God. It sounded like these just wanted to be their own god.
Scattered and Stopped
“Come, let’s go down and confuse the people with different languages. Then they won’t be able to understand each other.’ In that way, the Lord scattered them all over the world, and they stopped building the city” (Gen. 11: 7-8 NLT)
God confused the languages so that people had to congregate together and move apart.
Why did God stop the building of the city and scatter the people? There are several answers, I believe.
God want to prevent a universal monarchy.
I think we have to go back to the story of King Saul to help see the reason for that. Samuel the Prophet was old, and the leaders of Israel were worried about their future.
“Finally, all the elders of Israel met at Ramah to discuss the matter with Samuel. ‘Look,’ they told him, ‘you are now old, and your sons are not like you. Give us a king to judge us like all the other nations have’” (I Sam. 8: 4-5 NLT).
God didn’t really say it was wrong to have a monarchy. He said their reasons for wanting one was wrong.
“‘Do everything they say to you,’ the Lord replied, ‘for they are rejecting me, not you. They don’t want me to be their king any longer’” (I Sam. 8: 7 NLT).
That being said, Fuller’s answer was interesting. He wrote,
“With respect to the world, if the whole earth had continued under one government, that government would, of course, considering what human nature is, have been exceedingly despotic and oppressive. The division of the world into independent nations has also been a great check on persecution, and so has operated in a way of mercy towards the Church. If the whole world had been under one government, and that government inimical to the gospel, there had been no place of refuge left upon the earth for the faithful.”
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Ooo, baby. One world, one people would be tyrannical and cruel with persecution for dissension. That means a world led by sin will be chaotic.
Aren’t we heading that way? Isn’t that what the Antichrist will bring?
Worldview people are deluding themselves if they think one world, one people will be a better world.
God knew we can lead others astray with our plans.
Parker was right when he said that, while Satan gives us sinful plans, skills, and insight, God does give us wonderful plans, skills, and insight. It is up to us to determine if God is getting the glory or if it is leading us away from Him.
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That tells us that ambition itself isn’t necessarily wrong. It is the intent and focus of that ambition that leads to sin.
Parker also said that we have to work under the human limitations that God has given us. If we think we are learning and doing because of our own understanding and skills, that is sin.
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We will never grow beyond how God has created us. We have to make sure the focus is on Him, not us.
Babel
“That is why the city was called Babel, because that is where the Lord confused the people with different languages. In this way he scattered them all over the world” (Gen. 11: 9 NLT)
God may have separated humans, but He did not plan to leave us that way.
Babel is one of those functional translations. It sounds like the Hebrew word for confusion.
That is the opposite of God. God is a God of peace.
- “For God is not a God of disorder but of peace, as in all the meetings of God’s holy people” (I Cor. 14: 33 NLT).
- “Now may the Lord of peace himself give you his peace at all times and in every situation. The Lord be with you all” (II Thess. 3: 16 NLT).
- “And now may God, who gives us his peace, be with you all. Amen” (Rom. 15: 33 NLT).
- “Don’t worry about anything; instead, pray about everything. Tell God what you need, and thank him for all he has done. Then you will experience God’s peace, which exceeds anything we can understand. His peace will guard your hearts and minds as you live in Christ Jesus” (Phil. 4: 6-7 NLT).
- “Therefore, since we have been made right in God’s sight by faith, we have peace with God because of what Jesus Christ our Lord has done for us” (Rom. 5: 1 NLT).
- “You will keep in perfect peace all who trust in you, all whose thoughts are fixed on you!” (Isa. 26: 3 NLT).
- “Dear brothers and sisters, I close my letter with these last words: Be joyful. Grow to maturity. Encourage each other. Live in harmony and peace. Then the God of love and peace will be with you” (II Cor. 13: 11 NLT).
If we look at all the different languages, there does seem to be some rhyme and reason.
Adamson put it this way. He wrote,
“The confusion of tongues was not at random. It was a systematic distribution of languages for the purpose of a systematic distribution of man in emigration. The dispersion was orderly, the difference of tongue corresponding to the differences of race. By these were the Gentiles divided in their lands, everyone after his tongue, after their families in their nations.”
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Think back to Genesis 10. We took each of Noah’s sons separately. We got the lists of clans.
When discussing Ham, Moses dropped in information about nations. Some of these are going to give the Israelites grief for generations to come.
We know the Israelites come from Shem’s line. It is interesting that we aren’t told the nations descending from Japheth.
Paget said scattering humans was the best thing God could have done to nip evil in the bud. But He didn’t stop there.
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God devised the Plan of Salvation. He wanted us back.
Not only did God plan to unify His children, but He also planned to restore us to Him.
Making the Connections #1
Ouch. It can hurt to hear it, but Hughes had it right. He wrote, “Wicked ones are much encouraging one another to evil.”
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What Hughes doesn’t say is that disciples are often accused of being less encouraging to those these see as sinners coming to join them.
We’ve all read the stories and even memes about how the prostitute, drug addict, homosexual, adulterer [fill in whatever sinner] has been shunned the first time they showed up in our churches. I am sure that does happen in some churches.
We think what we label as worst of the worst sinners need to repent of their sins before they darken the church’s doors. They need to change before they come into God’s house.
Jesus finds us where we are — in whatever sin we are committing, a minor sin or the worst sin — and loves us and calls us to redemption.
Then, we are to repent and turn from sin. Then, we are to grow closer to being what God wants us to be.
We have to remember what Jesus said. “When Jesus heard this, he told them, ‘Healthy people don’t need a doctor — sick people do. I have come to call not those who think they are righteous, but those who know they are sinners’” (Mk. 2: 17 NLT).
Look what that says. “… ‘I have come to call not those who think they are righteous, but those who know they are sinners’” (Mk. 2: 17 NLT).
Who think they are righteous. No, Jesus didn’t say they were righteous. He said they think they are — indicating He didn’t think so.
But then, Jesus knew no one was righteous. “For everyone has sinned; we all fall short of God’s glorious standard” (Rom. 3: 23 NLT).
Making the Connections #2
Emmons brought up a really good point. Just who was getting dispersed?
Was it just the tower workers? Was it all of Ham’s descendants? Was it every human?
Well, no. It couldn’t be everyone because some had to stay in the area.
Emmons said God’s Word tells us. He wrote,
“But how came Nimrod the son of Ham, and his posterity, at Babylon, where Babel was built? This portion of the earth was allotted to Shem; and Nimrod with all the posterity of Ham was appointed to go to Africa. What right, then, had Nimrod, or any of the sons of Ham, to take possession of the plains of Babylon? Undoubtedly they had no right at all.”
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Ouch. Nimrod wasn’t supposed to be there in the first place. Since he was a great warrior, do I sense hostile takeover?
Emmons thought it was Ham’s descendants, especially Nimrod’s clan, who came to Babylon in the first place instead of Africa and waged war against Shem’s descendants to occupy it. He believed others (sounds like Japheth’s descendants) stayed around Mount Ararat.
So, even before their building project, they were disobeying God.
That puts a whole new twist on things. Talk about sin upon sin.
1. They didn’t go where they were told to go.
2. They fought — and probably killed — their own cousins.
3. They tried to build a tower to stake claim to the land and defy God.
Not a smart move.
Emmons called Nimrod’s people knowledgeable in arts and sciences. That, too, is what God wanted spread over the earth.
Unfortunately, they also spread idolatry. Too bad it is easier to spread that than God’s truth.
Isn’t it still that way today?
Making the Connections #3
Parker asked a good question. Why didn’t God just burn the city down? Maybe send a sickness through the group.
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Instead, God makes it so they all can’t talk to each other.
Did this happen overnight? Or were they on the job and suddenly lose the ability to communicate? How did they find each other to group together?
The writer of Hebrews had it right. “It is a terrible thing to fall into the hands of the living God” (Heb. 10: 31 NLT).
Well, it is when we are disobeying. When we are obedient, it is great.
No, God isn’t always going to do what we think. He has a lot of things in His toolbox that we would never consider.
But we should know that God corrects us in the way we need to bring us back to Him.
How Do We Apply This?
- Don’t be led into sin by others.
- Don’t believe that sinful practices will bring for godly ends.
- Realize that sin will not be impeded by struggles.
- Recognize common practices that can be used to call us deeper into sin.
- Don’t patronize sinful establishments.
- Depend on God.
- Don’t be proud or ambitious.
- Don’t rely on ourselves.
- Always trust in God.
- Don’t disobey God.
- Recognize how easily and quickly God can and will punish us.
- Spread God’s truth, not idolatry.
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Father God. Thank You for correcting us when we sin against You. Thank You for loving us enough to want us to follow You. Forgive us when we put too much value on something besides You. Draw us back into Your Will. Amen.
What do you think?
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